


Life is a Highway

by ddullahan



Category: Cars (Pixar Movies), RWBY
Genre: Cars, Cursed content, F/F, Ruby's race is called the Vital Cup instead of the Piston Cup, and none of this is relevant but these are things i thought of while writing it lmao, but also fluffy??, but in the RWBY universe, idk man Weiss honks somewhere and Ruby isn't an asshole like Lightning McQueen so, the town is actually called Beacon Springs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26948032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddullahan/pseuds/ddullahan
Summary: Fic commissionRuby is Lightning McQueen minus the ego and Weiss is Sally. Nothing really happens except Nora is Mater because they share feral energies.
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Comments: 30
Kudos: 49





	1. Life Is A Highway

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whal/gifts).



> Thank you @whal3 for commissioning me ily T.T Even if this is one of the most cursed things I've ever written, I had a stupid amount of fun with it lmao
> 
> To anyone else reading this, godspeed and don't forget to love each other <3

* * *

Speed.

I am speed.

Or, I _was_ speed, till I got stuck in the middle of nowhere. 

It was kind of the worst thing that could ever happen, honestly. I had a race to get to and these small town cars weren’t letting me leave because, yeah okay so there was a _little_ property damage - but it wasn’t my fault! I got spooked by the cop car chasing me and ended up ripping up the road by accident. There was a creepy statue involved, Yang would've been proud.

Anyway, I got impounded and brought to the smallest courtroom I'd ever seen. Right off the bat I promised to come back and fix the road after my big race. I'd almost won the judge over when this gorgeous Porsche rolls into the room, stealing the gas from my engine (breath from my lungs adjacent lmao). I spared her a bright smile, to which she returned politely.

Then proceeded to mercilessly sentence me to community service.

Nevermind that she was all pale blue gloss, sleek curves, and - despite the crack running over one side of her windshield - beautiful beyond all reason. 

At that moment, she was my worst enemy.

I was towed from the courtroom by the crazy pale pink tow truck I'd met earlier, and so began the worst week of my life.

They hooked me up to this monstrosity of a road paver and told me I had to pull it, like, halfway across the desert! And yeah, okay, I didn't realise how _bad_ the damage was the night before - but how could they punish me like this?! I keep my promises, I would've come back to fix it.

The pink tow truck kept me company though, and we hit it off pretty well. Her name was Nora, she had a pale blue lightning bolt on one side "as a memorial to the time she got struck by lightning".

She was a little (a lot) crazy, but fun to talk to while I pulled the hissing paver along the road. To which, the judge told me, they'd fondly named _Bessie._

Anything without a mind that still spits asphalt like it had a grudge shouldn't be named something so cute, and I voiced it immediately to Nora. She laughed.

"Bessie's the closest thing we got to a construction crew." She said, rolling backwards a few inches every minute or so. My chassis were aching already. "I think she likes you!"

A bubble of asphalt popped, splattering all over the red rose on my hood. I gave a loud groan, Nora giggling off to the side.

Suddenly a flash of blue caught my eye, followed by the sudden sting of violent water pressure. I shrieked and the water stopped, a cool voice sounding through Bessie's pops and hissing. 

"Looks like you missed a spot, Oscar." 

The water erupted across my windshield again and I sputtered, nearly backing into Bessie. I spit and gasped, blinking furiously as the pretty Porsche from before came into focus, staying a few feet away with a comically small fire truck at her side. He gave me a hesitant smile, but I could only glare at the smug looking car. My radiator was boiling.

"What's your problem?!" I asked sharply, spooking the fire truck into zipping back to his flowers. I felt a little guilty about it, silently promising to apologise later.

"I was helping you out, obviously." She said, the smug look never fading from her. "If you're staying at my motel, you need to be clean."

"I didn't even - wait, what?" I blinked.

"The Cozy Cone, over there? You may be a hazard to the town but at least tell me you can observe things." She replied with a roll of her eyes. 

"I know what it is!" I said defensively, rolling forward until the harness locked and Bessie's weight forced me to stop. "Why are you offering me a place to stay?"

"You're small for a race car." She said without missing a beat, having the decency to look a little guilty. "I didn't think you'd be able to pull Bessie at all, let alone actually pave the road. You might as well stay somewhere comfortable if you're doing the job."

Taken aback, I only blinked again. Nora came to my rescue, exclaiming, "Well she'd love to, Weiss! Thanks for offering!"

Weiss huffed, rolling backwards for a smooth three-point turn. "Don't look into it. I'm just being hospitable."

"She never does this." Nora whispered conspiratorially. I barely registered it, too busy staring at a snowflake tattoo just under Weiss' spoiler.

My mouth moved without thinking, "Is that a snowflake tattoo I see back there?"

Weiss nearly honked in surprise, reversing so fast she spun 180 degrees in a second. Her eyes darted every which way, sputtering, "Wh-what're you even looking back there for you - you dirty aired dolt!"

"That was a racing term!" I said without answering her, completely floored. "You know racing terms!"

"I - just - just pave the road!" Weiss zipped backwards into the motel lobby without another word. Suddenly I wanted nothing more than the day to end. 

I had to know _everything_ about her.

"Wow."

Nora's voice made me jump. I'd forgotten she was there.

"That was… something."

"Something… good?" I asked hesitantly.

I received a wide, unnerving grin in return.

"Who knows!"

It really wasn't reassuring. 

By the time the day ended, I was halfway through the road and itching to move faster than two miles an hour. I asked the kind sheriff if she could take me somewhere to let off steam, and she brought me to this conveniently shaped bluff with a dirt road. She reminded me gently that I had only a small amount of gas so I wouldn't get far, but I didn't care. Nora was there to tow me back if I ran out, it was gonna be fine.

Then I skidded off the track and into a fucking cactus.

I heard laughter from the hill and instantly wished my battery would die. Weiss was watching Nora tear me from the sharp thorns, her blue shine glinting from the top of the hill with that same smug look back on her face.

And that was just the first day.


	2. I Love You Now Like I Loved You Then

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I............ I have no excuse except that whal3 commissioned a second chapter and for some fucking reason it's the only thing that's cured my writer's block for the past two months LOL
> 
> And because of that, whal3, you get a longer chapter. Thank you for commissioning me ily and your cursed ideas <3
> 
> To everyone else, I hope it sparks joy and cringe in equal measure, don't forget to love each other, and *please* let me know your thoughts on this LOL

* * *

So the Cozy Cone Motel? Actually super cozy. Who'da thought. Certainly not me. We're usually supposed to avoid traffic cones, but these ones were deceptively warm and nice, along with being like, fifty-times their normal size.

I guess they also reflected the owner in a way. 

Not- not that Weiss was fifty times her normal size, that's - pfft- that's just ridiculous. No, Weiss was...an interesting car, to say the least. 

I may have had the horsepower to lug this monstrous paver half-a-mile a day, but my attention span was never so dedicated. I’ve always had a horrible habit of growing bored stupidly fast, and there was really nothing to do except car-watching (like people watching, basically) in this tiny town I was trapped in. I happened to notice a few things.

Like how Nora, after she got bored of talking with me, would immediately start chattering to a patient green and pink Mazda. Or how Weiss would methodically weave over the chunks of road, smooth and slow. Oscar would water the flowers around a statue of an old paddywagon every morning, Weiss would tidy her office despite nothing appearing out of place. Time seemed like it didn't exist here, which made me anxious about the days passing till my big race.

The gas station would open around mid-morning, which was around the time Weiss would emerge from her own Cozy Cone, and my entire world would proceed to narrow for a few hours. 

I couldn't help it, she was so interesting!

Like yeah she sentenced me to this community service stuff, but otherwise she actually seemed...nice? Prickly, but nice. She was cordial with most of the cars in Beacon Springs, mainly listening to the residents gossip, rather than offering her own stories.

I thought I saw her look at me a few times, but it was probably just the heat from Bessie getting to me. There's no way she'd notice me. Who would ever notice a dumb race car that wrecked the town road and ran face first into a cactus? Not my best first impression,  _ for sure _ .

It was my third or fourth day in Beacon Springs - I was  _ so close  _ to finishing the road - when the craziest thing happened.

Weiss  _ talked  _ to me.

I didn't see her at first, too busy trying to beatbox with the rhythm of my tires crunching over broken asphalt. 

“My name is Ruby, red like a cherry, or uh - like a ruby I guess. I’m tired and hot and boy this doesn’t rhyme at all but I definitely won’t stop-”

“Ehem.” 

I beeped, gravel skidding under my tires as I reversed into Bessie and nearly gave myself a fender-bender. “Oh! H-hey Weiss, I didn’t see you there!”

“Clearly.” She replied dryly, blue eyes skating over her. “I apologise for interrupting your...jam session.”

“O-oh no, you weren’t interrupting me at all I was just um. I was just bored, you’re fine!”

Offhandedly, I found myself wondering how fast I could fling myself back into the cactus patch. Figures that the one time Weiss wanted to talk to me was the moment I let my boredom get the best of me. Mortified, I almost missed her next words, and I was pretty sure I hallucinated them anyway.

“Sorry, what was that?” I asked, gaping.

“I asked if you’d like to take a drive.” Weiss said stiffly. 

“What do you mean?”

“A- do you only drive in circles where you’re from!?”

“ _ Oh _ you mean just like...driving on a road?”

Weiss hissed softly, the sun glinting in fractals across her powder blue polish as she clicked into reverse. “Forget it, I shouldn’t have asked-”

Alarm shot through me and I yelped, “Nono I’m sorry, I would love to take a drive with you!” 

Weiss paused, glancing over me coldly. “...Really?”

I nodded so hard my tires nearly left the broken asphalt, and Weiss seemed to relax a bit.

“Alright then.”

I sighed in relief, and we stared at each other for a second. Then two.

“...Oh you meant now?”

“Yes now!”

I jumped, nearly crashing into Bessie again. Weiss rolled her eyes and unlocked the harness connecting me to Bessy. I cautiously crept from the machine, feeling Weiss’ stare like a gravitational pull.

“Weiss, what are you  _ doing?” _ Nora exclaimed from behind, scaring the absolute dust out of me. 

“She’s taking a break for an hour.” Weiss replied simply, turning down the road. “I’ll keep an eye on her. Come on, Ruby.”

Wow she used my name. I felt like my engine was starting to run on electricity dust instead of combustion. I gave a sheepish smile to Nora and zipped after the porsche, trying to ignore the cackle she let off as I followed Weiss away from the town. 

I wasn’t sure what she had in mind, but I could already feel my excitement building. The further we got from Beacon Springs, the more free I felt. The wind whipped over my body as we picked up speed, and I was surprised (and a little floored) to find that Weiss had no problem keeping up with me. We made brief eye contact, the crack over her left eye distorting the perfect circle of her iris. 

She gave a smirk, winked, and suddenly roared into fifth gear, disappearing in a streak of blue. I was left in a gust of sand, gaping. The dust pounding through my circuits tapped out a startled beat, and stilled like it always did before a big race. I let out a high laugh, and the petals on my sides glowed bright red. With a gear shift and roar that echoed across the flat planes, I dug my tires in and ripped across the road, laughing the whole way. Weiss was already miles ahead of me, but I wasn’t worried. 

Her speck of blue grew larger and larger, the desert around us changing mile by mile. As I lapped her, the sand at the edges of the road turned from beige to a pastel adobe red, spots of green forestry appearing high on the cliffs and slowly trickling down into the valley. We approached the cliffs at top speed, neck and neck. My first real street race with one of the most beautiful cars I’d ever seen. Part of me wondered if I was dreaming. 

I made excited eye contact with her, only to drive straight through a mud puddle, then a pile of leaves. Weiss’ laughter made the taste of mud and bugs in my teeth absolutely worth it. The wind blew most of it off and the rose petals along my sides dimmed as we slowed into a cruise. I found that I didn’t mind slowing down, especially when Weiss started talking about the history of the highway we were on. She knew so much about the area, and spoke about it with such passion that I was more mesmerized by her than the gorgeous scenery around us.

We drove for at least an hour, just talking. 

I told her about my sister and the Vital Cup I was hoping to win at the end of the week. She told me she grew up in cold mountains but unabashedly loved the waterfalls around Beacon Springs. I wanted to know how she got to Beacon Springs in the first place but she seemed nervous to go into it, so I let it go. I ended up explaining the dust system my sister engineered to make the petals along my sides light up and she seemed to forget her nervousness in favor of pure fascination. 

Before I knew it, we were back in the borders of Beacon Springs. I stopped for a moment as the town appeared below the crest of the old road, the sunset rays streaking through the old buildings and turning the sky into a watercolor painting. Weiss lingered beside me.

“I love this town.” She said quietly. “And I love the freedom it’s given me.” She glanced at me. “I wanted you to see it’s value. The road you’re building should hopefully keep it alive for a few more years.”

Weiss was...resplendent with hope. I stared at her for a long moment, something nervous stuttering through my engine. The moment came for me to act on it - and instead, I made a silent decision. 

“...I’m gonna make it the best road in Remnant.” I said firmly, rolling up to meet her gaze. “I promise.”

Weiss’ answering smile made everything outside of it seem bleak and gray. As I followed her into the sleepy town, I knew I’d never see sunsets the same.


End file.
